2012-2013 University of Michigan Application Thread

Applying to Med School? Get In Or Your Money Back
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Shockwave456 said:
Anyone care to comment on the merit- or need-based financial aid at Michigan?
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What about it?
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According the financial aid page they give ~10 full tuition, merit-based scholarships a year, and about a third of incoming students receive some sort of scholarship aid, but they don't have a breakdown of how much of that is merit vs need-based. They don't release financial info until after March 15th, but I'm not sure of the exact date.
 
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mcloaf said:
According the financial aid page they give ~10 full tuition, merit-based scholarships a year, and about a third of incoming students receive some sort of scholarship aid, but they don't have a breakdown of how much of that is merit vs need-based. They don't release financial info until after March 15th, but I'm not sure of the exact date.
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Thanks for the info! :)
 
Anyone (current students?) know how receptive Michigan is to accepted students deferring admission for a year?
 
somethingdeep said:
Anyone (current students?) know how receptive Michigan is to accepted students deferring admission for a year?
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One of the student tour guides on my interview day mentioned he deferred a year for a Fulbright. Give it a shot if you have a good reason, the worst they can say is no.
 
mcloaf said:
You're gonna leave us 2017'ers?!

:(
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Haha just considering it :)


Tots said:
One of the student tour guides on my interview day mentioned he deferred a year for a Fulbright. Give it a shot if you have a good reason, the worst they can say is no.
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OK, thanks. I'm thinking about it more for "finding yourself" type reasons, i.e. nothing awesome-sounding like a Fulbright.
 
Just withdrew from the wait list. Good luck to everybody!
 
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Did any deferred decision folks end up getting a status update last night or this morning? I am not optimistic as it is so late in the game for Michigan, but I do want to know one way or the other. Congrats to any and all accepted applicants!
 
Member 29 said:
Did any deferred decision folks end up getting a status update last night or this morning? I am not optimistic as it is so late in the game for Michigan, but I do want to know one way or the other. Congrats to any and all accepted applicants!
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Just called the Admissions Office. They have been experiencing some technical difficulties, but should update deferred decision candidates by tomorrow
 
If anyone else is monitoring this, I thought I would share that I called and admissions is still having issues today, which they hope to fix and release decisions by tomorrow.
 
Anyone excited about the scholarships coming out this Friday?
 
Shockwave456 said:
Yes! I've heard about the full-tuition scholarships, but are there other significant scholarships too?
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If I can recall this correctly from my interview day, >6months ago so forgive me if i'm wrong, everyone is eligible for some sort of scholarship and that more than half of the students end up getting some money. It ranges anywhere from a few hundred dollars to the full-tuition scholarship.

They are very generous and I have heard that if you have your heart set on Michigan but are finding it hard to afford that school over other cheaper and comparable options, they will do their best to make Michigan the most attractive option.
 
Tough Decisions ahead.... more and more I think I belong at Michigan.. Just received 120K scholarship from Michigan.
 
Anyone know how the merit scholarships work in conjunction with need based aid? Like say I was going to get $15,000 in need-based grants, and then Michigan awards me $10,000 in merit scholarships. Will they just reduce my grants by $10,000 since I don't need to scrape up that money myself anymore? Or will the $10,000 be in addition to whatever need-based aid I am given?
 
somethingdeep said:
Anyone know how the merit scholarships work in conjunction with need based aid? Like say I was going to get $15,000 in need-based grants, and then Michigan awards me $10,000 in merit scholarships. Will they just reduce my grants by $10,000 since I don't need to scrape up that money myself anymore? Or will the $10,000 be in addition to whatever need-based aid I am given?
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Just called financial aid about this question precisely. What I was told was that tuition is first paid for by Scholarships, then grants, and then loans/personal money, in that order. Basically, just because you received scholarships does not mean they will reduce your grants accordingly.

Thats not to say that, in considering how much grant you should be awarded, that the amount of scholarship you would obtain would affect it. Hopefully the grant allocation is independent of merit scholarship.

The short answer to your question is that NO your grants will not be taken away because you received scholarships. They will take away your loans first. However, does receiving a scholarship affect the thinking process in how much grant you will be awarded? that is another question.
 
2010CalBear said:
Just called financial aid about this question precisely. What I was told was that tuition is first paid for by Scholarships, then grants, and then loans/personal money, in that order. Basically, just because you received scholarships does not mean they will reduce your grants accordingly.

Thats not to say that, in considering how much grant you should be awarded, that the amount of scholarship you would obtain would affect it. Hopefully the grant allocation is independent of merit scholarship.

The short answer to your question is that NO your grants will not be taken away because you received scholarships. They will take away your loans first. However, does receiving a scholarship affect the thinking process in how much grant you will be awarded? that is another question.
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Thanks for the reply! And yeah, maybe I'm just cynical, but I can only imagine they would take your scholarship into account when determining grants. Seems like scholarships would be the most valuable to people who won't be receiving any need based grants, just loans.
 
somethingdeep said:
Thanks for the reply! And yeah, maybe I'm just cynical, but I can only imagine they would take your scholarship into account when determining grants. Seems like scholarships would be the most valuable to people who won't be receiving any need based grants, just loans.
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M1 here! Congratulations to those who received scholarships! Also keep in mind that the this is likely just the first round of awards - other scholarships will likely go out in a month or so. Some students may even find that their scholarships increase down the road as funds are freed when some applicants choose to go elsewhere.

My impression is that the merit grants and need grants are fully separate - the calculation of one doesn't affect the calculation of the other, and the two are added to calculate the full award. I have a full tuition scholarship, with no other need-based grants, but I do know of other full-tuition recipients who also received need-based grants - the two most generous packages I know of left the students with only $7,000 per year in loans.

Even without need-based grants, Michigan was still by far my least expensive option. The scholarship fully covers tuition and fees, leaving me only with living expenses in a very affordable part of the country. I think our living expense budget is $22,500 per year, but some students do live on less. I know one M1 who's living on $10k per year, though that would be unrealistic for me.

When considering the value of the scholarship, keep in mind that it's actually far larger than the "sticker" value. Since interest accrues on med school loans at 6.8% per year, and most students won't be able to pay off loans until after residency (say five years post med school), a $60k in loans for M1 year alone becomes $90k eight years later.

Personally, I'm 100% happy with my decision to choose Michigan over other schools that I was initially considering. Michigan is fantastic and I'll have way more flexibility down the road than I would have had with more expensive programs. This is my second graduate degree, and I paid for the first one myself with over $150k in loans. It was brutal to have to pay $2k per month (minimum), plus even more (usually another $1.5 to $2k) since I wanted to be free of the debt as quickly as possible. The debt had a huge impact on the kind of job I could take and it was the main reason that I delayed going to medical school for several years. I'm so grateful to Michigan for the flexibility that they have given me and for the magnitude of their investment in my education and development. It's just incredibly generous.

I hope that you'll GO BLUE!
 
Fawn Leibowitz said:
M1 here! Congratulations to those who received scholarships! Also keep in mind that the this is likely just the first round of awards - other scholarships will likely go out in a month or so. Some students may even find that their scholarships increase down the road as funds are freed when some applicants choose to go elsewhere.

My impression is that the merit grants and need grants are fully separate - the calculation of one doesn't affect the calculation of the other, and the two are added to calculate the full award. I have a full tuition scholarship, with no other need-based grants, but I do know of other full-tuition recipients who also received need-based grants - the two most generous packages I know of left the students with only $7,000 per year in loans.

Even without need-based grants, Michigan was still by far my least expensive option. The scholarship fully covers tuition and fees, leaving me only with living expenses in a very affordable part of the country. I think our living expense budget is $22,500 per year, but some students do live on less. I know one M1 who's living on $10k per year, though that would be unrealistic for me.

When considering the value of the scholarship, keep in mind that it's actually far larger than the "sticker" value. Since interest accrues on med school loans at 6.8% per year, and most students won't be able to pay off loans until after residency (say five years post med school), a $60k in loans for M1 year alone becomes $90k eight years later.

Personally, I'm 100% happy with my decision to choose Michigan over other schools that I was initially considering. Michigan is fantastic and I'll have way more flexibility down the road than I would have had with more expensive programs. This is my second graduate degree, and I paid for the first one myself with over $150k in loans. It was brutal to have to pay $2k per month (minimum), plus even more (usually another $1.5 to $2k) since I wanted to be free of the debt as quickly as possible. The debt had a huge impact on the kind of job I could take and it was the main reason that I delayed going to medical school for several years. I'm so grateful to Michigan for the flexibility that they have given me and for the magnitude of their investment in my education and development. It's just incredibly generous.

I hope that you'll GO BLUE!
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thanks for all the info!
 
Fawn Leibowitz said:
M1 here! Congratulations to those who received scholarships! Also keep in mind that the this is likely just the first round of awards - other scholarships will likely go out in a month or so. Some students may even find that their scholarships increase down the road as funds are freed when some applicants choose to go elsewhere.

My impression is that the merit grants and need grants are fully separate - the calculation of one doesn't affect the calculation of the other, and the two are added to calculate the full award. I have a full tuition scholarship, with no other need-based grants, but I do know of other full-tuition recipients who also received need-based grants - the two most generous packages I know of left the students with only $7,000 per year in loans.

Even without need-based grants, Michigan was still by far my least expensive option. The scholarship fully covers tuition and fees, leaving me only with living expenses in a very affordable part of the country. I think our living expense budget is $22,500 per year, but some students do live on less. I know one M1 who's living on $10k per year, though that would be unrealistic for me.

When considering the value of the scholarship, keep in mind that it's actually far larger than the "sticker" value. Since interest accrues on med school loans at 6.8% per year, and most students won't be able to pay off loans until after residency (say five years post med school), a $60k in loans for M1 year alone becomes $90k eight years later.

Personally, I'm 100% happy with my decision to choose Michigan over other schools that I was initially considering. Michigan is fantastic and I'll have way more flexibility down the road than I would have had with more expensive programs. This is my second graduate degree, and I paid for the first one myself with over $150k in loans. It was brutal to have to pay $2k per month (minimum), plus even more (usually another $1.5 to $2k) since I wanted to be free of the debt as quickly as possible. The debt had a huge impact on the kind of job I could take and it was the main reason that I delayed going to medical school for several years. I'm so grateful to Michigan for the flexibility that they have given me and for the magnitude of their investment in my education and development. It's just incredibly generous.

I hope that you'll GO BLUE!
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*like* Thanks for the info!

I also got a scholarship on Friday and am SO EXCITED! I'm out of state, so this makes a massive difference for me.
 
Just got my financial aid estimate... Very happy!
 
All right, just got my estimate. For people who have already gotten theirs, was there any Parent Contribution or Student Contribution amount? Mine didn't have any listed, and I can't figure out if they don't think my family should contribute anything, or if they're expecting me to ask them for some money to offset the giant amount of loans Michigan is suggesting I take out :eek: (I didn't realize Michigan doesn't adhere to the 'unit loan' concept.)
 
somethingdeep said:
All right, just got my estimate. For people who have already gotten theirs, was there any Parent Contribution or Student Contribution amount? Mine didn't have any listed, and I can't figure out if they don't think my family should contribute anything, or if they're expecting me to ask them for some money to offset the giant amount of loans Michigan is suggesting I take out :eek: (I didn't realize Michigan doesn't adhere to the 'unit loan' concept.)
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Mine didn't list any expected contribution, just a scary amount of unmet need for which they suggest GradPlus loans @ 7.9%.

:(
 
Strategy for Scholarships at UM:

1. For those of you wanting to defer for a year...
DON'T EMAIL ADMISSIONS ASKING FOR A DEFERRAL YET!
They always accept around 350 students and as far as I know for the past 3 years they have over-accepted (i.e. the amount of students actually wanting to matriculate is greater than 170 which is the class size they aim for). So instead of actually utilizing their wait list as it is supposed to be utilized, UM will basically send out an email at around June/July asking the accepted people to let them know if they want to defer and that they may have a financial incentive if they do. The financial incentive is 20k/yr aid (so 80k total over 4 years). Basically it is to your advantage to wait for that email and then let the school know of your deferral. If for some reason not that many people want to matriculate this year and they don't have to do incentivized deferrals then you still don't lose out on anything because as long as you have a semi-legit reason you can get a deferral.


2. For those of you not deferring...
DO NOT WITHDRAW FROM ANY SCHOOL YET!
UM gives out both need based and merit based aid but if you really want to maximize your chances of a scholarship then the best thing you could do is to hold onto offers from other schools. If you can get a scholarship from another school, email Ruiz and he may match it or give you a counteroffer. Your chances of a match for a scholarship drastically increases if you have been offered money at a school that is comparably ranked. Try to email Ruiz early on because if it's too late he might tell you that they don't have any funds to match the scholarship.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for that post AndyTom! It was quite encouraging. I just received an estimate from Michigan and am essentially paying for everything via loan, which is giving me a serious panic attack. I guess I'll have to sit tight a little longer before making a decision....
 
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